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Twitter is a powerful took to help you keep an eye on the media and make connections when appropriate Several weeks ago I mentioned Help A Reporter Out, a free subscription service that helps connect journalists with those who have stories to tell. What I neglected to mention is that HARO also has a Twitter account where they post requests from journalists’ who are on tight deadlines. If you’re on Twitter, you can follow HARO (@helpareporter).

You can also see which reporters and news outlets are on Twitter. You can follow the outlets and people that apply to your food business which will help you learn what types of stories they write about and you may also hear about sources that journalists need for articles they’re working on. If there’s a journalist in particular that you want to pitch a sotry idea and they’re on Twitter, it is worthwhile to consider pitching them through Twitter. You can send direct messages via Twitter to journalists you follow if they follow you back. For many of these journalists, the 140-key strokes required in Twitter makes it easier for them to quickly read pitches (and forces you to write very tightly worded pitches) and they can immediate decide if they want more information or not.

I also just learned about Cision’s Journalist Tweets site which shows you what journalists are tweeting about. You can drill down to the country and, in some instances, the topic you want to follow, and see who is tweeting what.